{"id":524110,"date":"2026-03-09T07:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524110\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T07:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:36:07","slug":"the-smell-wasnt-healthy-the-artist-who-wore-24-nappies-to-highlight-sewage-pollution-and-fell-ill-art-and-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524110\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The smell wasn\u2019t healthy\u2019: the artist who wore 24 nappies to highlight sewage pollution \u2013 and fell ill | Art and design"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the Deptford foreshore, a ghoulish figure is sinking into the Thames. Performance artist zack mennell (who writes their name in lower case) wades to their belly button as a crowd watches on. DAs they dip down further, their mutant costume \u2013 sewn together from 24 adult nappies \u2013 swells with water \u2026 and waste.<\/p>\n

mennell\u2019s work smears the personal and political across their body. The Thames performance is the finale of a project called (para)site, made in response to revelations of sewage discharge in our waterways and a reaction to the way benefit claimants are labelled a drain on society. \u201cOK,\u201d mennell thought, \u201cI\u2019m going to be the parasite.\u201d Their taking on of pollution was more literal than they intended; they contracted Weil\u2019s disease from rat urine in the water.<\/p>\n

Such messy, muck-slathered work is, mennell admits, \u201ca bit weird, a bit intense, a bit silly\u201d. Growing up by the chalk pits of Thurrock, Essex, and making their way into London\u2019s live art scene for its \u201chotspot of queer iniquity and filth\u201d, they were always drawn by the Thames. It\u2019s what called to mennell in their darkest moments; where they walked when they were getting sober; and where they return for their art, including their latest film, a sea change. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m working with it,\u201d they say of the water, \u201csometimes arguing with it too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

a sea change: trailer<\/p>\n

For those uninitiated in live art, mennell\u2019s work can be challenging to the audience. As artist-in-residence at queer performance and discussion season Rat Park, mennell drenched themself in a gloopy, lube-like thickening agent to explore pollution and shame, and gathered the audiences\u2019 spit in their hand as a meditation on community. But it\u2019s never about unsettling their viewers. \u201cIt\u2019s a confrontation,\u201d mennell acknowledges, \u201cbut it\u2019s also about finding a moment of connection.\u201d Live art is \u201cnot just people getting naked because they want to\u201d.<\/p>\n

In March, mennell is extending this connection by opening the doors of nearby Peckham\u2019s ramshackle Safehouses to Common Host<\/a>, a weekend of performances, screenings and workshops engaging with ancient folklore and ecological decay. Their fascination with the postindustrial pollution of natural landscapes is inspired by their home town, which hosts both Neanderthal remains and Amazon warehouses.<\/p>\n

Committed performance \u2026 mennell in Rage Reactor. Photograph: Baiba Sprance<\/p>\n

Much of their work springs from this collision of people and place. \u201cPerformance art is a meeting point,\u201d mennell says. \u201cYou are creating a community, even if it\u2019s a temporary one.\u201d Supported by experimental performance producers Future Ritual, Common Host will include work from artists including mennell\u2019s frequent collaborator Martin O\u2019Brien. \u201cQueer performance is often working with friends or lovers,\u201d mennell says. \u201cThat\u2019s true of any art form where you\u2019re dealing with difficult, sensitive topics.\u201d<\/p>\n

mennell doesn\u2019t like to \u201cpin down\u201d their work, but the topics they explore \u2013 queerness, disability, survival \u2013 deserve to be handled with care. When they were at university, they had a mental breakdown. While standing in the silty, murky Thames, mennell held their own NHS letters \u2013 psychiatric documents and assessments \u2013 printed on rice paper, letting the words dissolve into the water. This finale of (para)site is just one of the performances they\u2019ve created using the documents from that time, which spoke \u201cabout me and never to me\u201d. In another use of the adult-nappy suit (they tried to keep the one from the Thames, but \u201cthe smell wasn\u2019t healthy\u201d) they asked audiences to read these documents out to them, in turns dissolving meaning and honing in on individual words and phrases, chipping away at their power.<\/p>\n

Collision of people and places \u2026 another image from a sea change. Photograph: Baiba Sprance<\/p>\n

In light of their experience of institutions, mennell is wary of how their art might be perceived. \u201cThere\u2019s been a bit of anxiety about my behaviour in performance being pathologised,\u201d they say. But using these cold, official documents as material in performance has been \u201cthe only way I could change my relationship with this growing pile\u201d. A similar unburdening is now being offered to others as part of Common Host. A day-long workshop will welcome people to examine their difficult relationship with a \u201ccontaminated\u201d material and work on shifting the hold it has over them. \u201cIt\u2019s an invitation,\u201d mennell says, \u201cto look at your relationship to an object and redefine it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collecting ideas like pebbles from the shore, Common Host \u201ccurated itself\u201d, mennell says, because it is ultimately a drawing together of artistic friends. \u201cI make solo work, but it only exists because of these connections,\u201d they say. \u201cQueer community is the understanding that our society\u2019s focus on family isn\u2019t so sturdy. For me, it was coming to London to be among people that are like me.\u201d This community, they say, \u201cmeans everything. Being together is how we go on. It\u2019s a reason to live.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the Deptford foreshore, a ghoulish figure is sinking into the Thames. Performance artist zack mennell (who writes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-524110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}